Fallen Albatross
by Lippy Cus
Summary: starting out as a one shot, but i plan to add more chapters on at some point. After a drop goes wrong River is trying to get home.
1. Chapter 1

**Joss is Boss. I own nuthin'! edited 6-12-13**

Howling wind, driving rain and deafening thunder battered and tore at River as she tried to raise herself for the final leg back to _Serenity_. Her small dancer's limbs felt heavy as she brought her feet forward for another shuffling step. She could not recollect how she got there; she knew that Captain Daddy had been at her side, along with Zoe. But now she couldn't suss out what happened after the fight.

The drop had gone south from the get go, there had been an attempt at a double cross, she had sensed it and had been about to warn the others but had been too late. Shots started to fly and the _weapon_ cracked through the fragile walls she had placed around it and preceded to take her over. She had separated from the captain so as not to harm him, but in doing so had cut herself off from help of any kind. Jayne could not reach her in time as the enemy over powered her and he screamed as his albatross was pushed over the side of the cliff. He knew, despite everything he felt she would not be flying out of this one.

Now some hours later, she was trying to get back to her family. She knew that they were looking for her even in this storm. She felt their fear and dread washing over her like the rain as she tried again to stand and continue to where she heard their thoughts coming from. Captain Daddy and Zoe were the calmest. They had slipped into soldier mode, methodically going over their respected sectors looking for any sign of her. Simon and Kaylee were next to useless such was their panic. In turn they were slowing down Book as he tried to calm them down and pray for her safety.

That left Jayne. She could feel that he was close, heard his yells for her resounding through her mind. Leave it to him to know his voice was useless, he just kept repeating her name in his head over and over. The man-ape gone wrong was steadily moving over the terrain of the valley heading for the spot he had watched her fall off the cliff. She kept her focus on him, taking shelter in his mind and finding a little comfort in his familiar presence.

The squall, all the while had kept up its relentless movement against her body robbing her of what little heat she had from her tattered dress. Her dual Kris blades, Binky Jr. and Mable, whom she had managed to hold on to, were back in her thigh holsters. The reaver ax, which she and Jayne had agreed not to bestow a name to, was strapped to her back between her shoulder blades; however, in the fall she had lost Emily, the pistol that Mal had given her after the fight on Miranda.

As her brain cataloged the damages to her arsenal, Jayne moved steadily closer to where she was. He didn't know what or how he knew that was the area where he would find her, but he kept going with his bull-headed determination. He knew where his witch was and no hell could stand in his way getting to her.

All his tracking skills were in play, every movement of the world around him was taken in, every smell besides the rain-soaked earth was analyzed for any aroma that maybe her. His muscles were tense under the shirt that the weather had plaster to his body like a second skin. Upon making it to one of the black granite outcroppings that the rim planet was known for, he paused to rest and took a wide look around.

_Please hurry Jayne-man; it's getting difficult to retain consciousness._

_Feng Le Woman, I ain't never lettin' you off'n the gorram ship if'n you gonna insist on gettin' your shiny pi gu inta so much go se._

She opened up her eyes and moved her head to look up through her rain-soaked hair. Right above her little hiding spot stood the merc. His head was down, eyes searching all the small crevasses around him to see just a glimpse of her, to find some proof that he is right and he would find her alive. She watched as his eyes systematically move over the ground and saw the glimmer of recognition when he spotted her combat boot that poked out from under her clothes. Her heart sang as she witnessed his blue eyes move up her leg as if physically touching it. She could also sense his hesitation in what he may find. As his gaze came up to settle on her face, a flash of lighting, blinding white light blazed behind him and thunder crashed over head as relief could be seen spreading through every fiber of Jayne's body as he locked eyes with her over the rocky edge.

Giving a half smirk at the giant merc, her body sagged and her eyes rolled back in her skull. Vaulting down from the outcrop, Jayne rushed to River's side. Without moving her he checked her over, noticing her ankle was swelled and the skin peaking through the tears in the side of her dress showed deep bruising. Jayne slung Vera across his back and carefully grabbed the little assassin up in his arms, cautious not to jar her even more. As it was the movement still caused her to groan in her sleep. Moving as quickly as he could with his cargo, He headed back to _Serenity_.

"Jayne! Ya gorram qing wa cao de liu mang! - answer the com!" (frog humping son of a b-)

Mal's voice sounded desperate as the communicator on Jayne's hip squawked to life. Half sighing, half grunting Jayne shifted River in his arms so that he could reach the side pocket of his cargos for the com as the captain's voice continued to berate him for not checking in at the appointed time.

"Don't go gettin' ruttin' tetchy at me Captain, I was plumb outta range. I found River-girl and we are headin' back as'in we speak."

The relief was pliable through the com as those words were spoken. On the other side Mal sagged into the pilot's chair, not realizing until that point just how worried he got having his little Albatross, the girl who looked to him as a father, separated from the rest of the crew.

"What are your coordinates Jayne? Can ya get here on your own or should I be sendin' Zoe with the shuttle?"

Seconds later Jayne replied,

"we're 'bout two clicks south of where we run afoul o' them gorram yokels on the cliff, headin' towards ya guys now, but ya better be sendin' the Doc with Zoe, Riv is passed out, beat ta hell. So send em fast."

"They're a comin' Jayne, just stay put, been some chatter on the cortex of some not so friendly local color in that area so git ta findin a foxhole."

"Will do Cap."

"Just get your selves home."


	2. Chapter 2

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

She could smell the chemicals, the bleach and cleaners that Simon used every day to keep the room spotless. She knew it was more for his sanity, the reason he spent so much time here is this place she thought of as a prison. For him is was the only thing that he had left of his old life, of what he gave up all those years ago to break her out and keep her safe. He's done his job well, almost too well; it was his fault that she had to run away so that she could get what she had needed.

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

The foggy haze of the drugs was still holding her in place, both in her mind and body. She couldn't tell where the rest of the crew was. Mal was shouting about something, and over his loud noise she could barely hear Jayne and Simon as they headed back down to the infirmary. As she went to try and sit up Simon walked through the door.

"Mei mei no, just lay back. You have four broken ribs and one of them almost punctured your right lung, your ankle is also broken. I don't want you to move." While explaining everything that she already knew, he checked the bandages on her chest and ankle, making sure that she had not inadvertently hurt anything when she has tried to get up.

"Jayne?" rasped out River, feeling like her voice was that of another person's.

"He is waiting outside, but you shou…" as he was speaking Jayne came walking into the room, a look of concern on his face for River and a glare of death aimed at Simon.

"I'ma right 'ere beo bao, your han dan brother weren't letin' me in 'ere 'til ya woke up." The whole while he was saying this, his hands where moving up her sides. Simon just gave him a confused glance which River caught out of the corner of her eye sight.

"He's just checking to assure the albatross can yet fly."

On hearing this out of his sister's mouth Simon just rolled his eyes to the infirmary celling, gave a loud sigh and left the room.

River the whole time watched his reaction with a small smile on her face, glad that her brother was giving them the space that they so terribly needed after this last misadventure.

As Simon's silhouette moved deeper into _Serenity_, River leaned her head back and looked at Jayne. His ice blue eyes had still not gone back to the calm waters that they were the majority of the time, she could still see the worry and poorly controlled rage simmering right below the surface. He may put forward a persona for the rest of the crew, but he could never hide from his witch, even before they were together. She had broken down the walls brick by brick, without him even knowing that she had been slowly worming her way into his head, and his heart. It wasn't until the events of _Miranda_ that he realized that anything was off.

Even four years after the fact the memory of watching her jump through the blast doors would still haunt his dreams at night, and she knew that they would reappear for the next couple nights. They always manifested after one or both of them got hurt. As she drifted off back to sleep she thought of the first time he ever had the dreams…

**Flashback**

Serenity_ was quietly humming as she lay down on the catwalks above the cargo hold. The cool chill of the metal under her cheek helped her to come to focus and push the still lingering memories from Miranda down in her mind. In the three months since the battle the crew had slowly been on the mend. Two weeks prior, the hospital released Wash, the last one to still be physically healing. Now that he was back on board, the rest of the crew could breathe easier, Mal and Zoe both walked and moved a bit freely, Zoe still looked haunted whenever she would see Wash's chair and remember the harpoon coming through the window. Wash himself had changed very little to most around him, but she knew. River could see the hardness in his eyes when she would look at him and he thought no one was watching him. She knew that there was nothing for it but time that would help heal him, to heal the crew. _

_Jayne, there was another enigma. It almost seemed as if Miranda had no effect on him what so ever the only indication that it bothered him was the shadows under his eyes and all the time that he put into his work outs. She could not break down his mental walls enough to see how he was truly fairing. Before the fight she had been able to get into his thoughts at will, and often did when she knew that her grip on reality was slipping. But now she was blocked, again, she had to start at square one. _

_As she stretched out her body on the floor she let her mind wander over the crew as they slept. Zoe and Wash were sound asleep in each other's arms, both dreaming about a little red haired, mocha skinned child. Book was still up praying in his bunk so she quickly left him alone with his thoughts. Mal was sleeping fitfully, his dreams carrying him from the war torn images of Serenity Valley to the gruesome sight of the mummified remains on Miranda- then suddenly switching to the soft silks and warm colors of Inara's shuttle. Inara herself was peacefully asleep after many nights of being unable to rest properly without the whole crew on board. Kaylee and Simon were passed out in the hammock in the engine room from a combination of Kaylee's engine wine and a bottle of whiskey Simon had stashed away. _

_That left Jayne, all she could tell was that he was asleep, but when she tried to pry deeper she was met with a solid wall. There were no flaws or marks on the surface for her to grab ahold of so she could worm her way in again. This whole thing was driving her to the breaking point, the most infuriation thing about it was she could See his mind working a mile a minute, like water moving underground, you could sense it, knew it was there, but could not reach it. _

_Without consciously realizing what she was doing she had moved off the catwalks and into the corridor between the crew's bunks, she came to a stop outside of his door and leaned her ear up against the cool metal of the ship. With her eyes closed and breathing slow she strained her ears to hear any noise inside his bunk. After a few minutes she heard what she was waiting for, it was faint at first, but once she located it, it filled her senses and became all that she could hear. _

_Jayne was breathing hard, the heavy breath of someone scared for their life. She focused back on his mind, hoping to see if in his dreams he would let her in. he was still closed off, but she could See more movement, like the thrashing of a fish below the water's surface. Pushing against his barriers while simultaneously going down the ladder into his bunk she felt a tear form, and little by little she was able to wriggle her way back into is mind. _

_Once in, her body froze; the images that she was seeing from his dreams had her standing in shock and no small amount of fear. Jayne was reliving Miranda, but in his dream things were not going like they really had. All of Jayne's fears about Reavers were coming to pass. He was standing paralyzed in the middle of a hundred of the savages, unable to even look away. Forced into watching as the crew was slowly ripped to pieces in front of his eyes while he could do nothing but stand and witness his family be tortured and killed. _

Zoe, Mal and River where the only ones still alive enough to fight, although life was quickly draining from each as he watched the blood run down their bodies like streams, pooling on the floor beneath them causing the footing to become even more unstable. In the semi darkness of the room, Jayne could see the bodies of the others lay strewn throughout; shredded to the point that Jayne could not tell who they were but for the clothes still shrouding them.

As he looked on Zoe succumbed to the on slot and fell to the cold concrete; never once did a scream of fear pass her lips as she heaved her final breath, a glare of death on her face as she fired her mare's leg for the last time. Mal watched as his first mate fell, letting out a bellow that rang through the place like a thunder clap seeming to cause half the remaining lights overhead flickered and die. Charging towards the thickest pack of reavers, he flung himself in and fought with what he had left, finishing off as many as he could before their number became too much and he disappeared under the screaming, roiling mass of flesh.

River was the only one left. He was powerless to help her, he couldn't even release the scream building in his throat to call her to him. She was fighting like the demons around her, slashing with the ax and sword that she had picked up in the battle. As she danced in and out of the enemy around her, Jayne saw the tears streaming down her face whenever her eyes would happen to land on one of the fallen crew. With a ferociousness that clashed with just how slim her dancer's body was she tore through the reavers like a farmer's scythe, not paying mind to the wounds that she herself was collecting as she went. Jayne was able to see her in all her dangerous glory, as the Alliance's weapon. Gone was the air of a scared broken little girl who was lost in the world, in her place was the cold, calculating killer who gave no quarter.

She was forged from the endless hours of brain probes and surgeries that stripped away and fractured her mind. She was programed with different fighting styles so that she could defeat all those around her. Her natural ability to read people honed to find the deepest faults. They twisted her into something from another world, bent and molded their perfect little assassin.

Jayne never let his eyes leave her as she twirled and sprang her way through the hordes pouring in the room. She never slowed, even when he watched one reaver get in a lucky shot to her right elbow, causing her to lose the grip on the sword in her hand. He knew that she never even felt it, her face was just a blank mask showing no emotion. Wounds started showing on her legs and torso as the number of reavers began to dwindle. With a final sickening crunch, her ax caved in the head of her final opponent.

She stood in the middle of a pile of bodies, gore dripping off of the ax still in her hand and her blood running down her body to mix with the rest on the floor. River looked up and at him and he felt as though she was looking into his soul so deep did her gaze go. A small smile formed on her pale tear streaked face, and as the final light started flickering out- she clasped to the floor.

_Seeing everything as Jayne saw it, River had to struggle to keep from screaming over what she saw. Ripping herself out of his mind, she stood shaking in the middle of his bunk. Breathing deeply to calm down her racing pulse, she stood there looking at the still sleeping merc stretched out under the bulkhead. _

_As she stared, his movement became more pronounced, and with each jerk of his body she felt like a knife was being twisted into her heart. River had known for a while now that she loved the man, she hadn't wanted to be the reason that he was dreaming the things that he was, but in the end there was very little that she could do about that. This was the life that they had all chosen to live; they chose to help her face the demons from her past. And while they were safe for the time being, she knew that there was going to be more trouble and hardships to come. _

_With tears in her eyes, she slowly moved towards him, silent as the grave she reached out her hand and rested it against his arm in hopes of calming him down, if only a little bit. Soon as her hand made contact with his skin his other arm shot out and grabbed her wrist his eyes snapping open. Frozen yet again, River looked him dead in the eye. Although they were open, she could see it was just a physical reaction and that he was still asleep. Remaining as still as possible she waited for him to relax and close his eyes.  
When the pressure of his hand left her arm she slowly moved her hand to his head, holding her breath that he would stay under this time. She got no reaction but a heavy sigh out of him as she slowly ran her hand across his brow and down the sides of his face. Bringing her other hand up she put one on either cheek and with her mind reached out to him again. _

_This time she was prepared for what she would see, ignoring everything that was going on around them she went straight for Jayne and grabbed his hand. River knew when he acknowledged her due to the shift in his breathing- it evened out to a more normal pace. As his mind calmed and his dreams shifted to his guns and knives, she retreated from his mind and started to draw back her hands from his face; but before she could remove them all the way, his arms came up and reached out for her in the dark. She knew he didn't know what he was doing, again it was just a physical reaction to reach out for comfort after such an ordeal, but even so it gave her a feeling of acceptance to know that he would reach out for her. She let him gather her in his arms and draw her up onto his chest. Curling up on him like a cat she let herself relax into sleep, if only for a little bit. It wouldn't do to let Captain Daddy or Simon to find her here with him; she didn't want him getting spaced before she even had a chance with him. _

**End Flashback**

As the memory faded out in her mind, Jayne had moved to grab her up and sat behind her on the infirmary bed, resting her between his legs and draping her across his chest as she softly sighed. Feeling his arms come around her and his lips against her hair, River smiled and let her mind and body slip back into rest knowing that Jayne would go through hell, again, to keep her safe.

Just as she had passed out, Jayne gripped her harder and let the panic that he had been hiding flood his mind and features as he thought about what had happened that day. Watching River fall had caused him to feel like someone had taken Binky and shoved the blade through his gut. The fear that gripped him when he thought of losing her was enough to buckle his knees if he allowed himself to think on it for too long. He would throw himself into his weights or into his guns, working his body to the point where he could not think, anything to keep from thinking about the possibility of losing one of the few good thing still in his life.


	3. Chapter 3

**Joss is boss, wish on all worlds spinning I owned them but no such luck :/ Thanks to all who have reviewed, means so much to me to know people like this :) LippyCus**

* * *

Hidden in the shadows of the hall to keep out of Jayne's line of sight stood Mal, looking in on the couple and worrying his bottom lip. Something was off about what had transpired today, normally River was better at reading the situation and the crew had gotten used to less fights as a result. Watching his two mercenaries find comfort form the most unlikely source made a smirk appear on his face. Four years ago if some shmuck had tried to tell him that Jayne and River would feel anything for each other besides hate, let alone get hitched, He would have laughed them right off the ship.

It had taken the whole crew a long time to notice something had changed between the two and even longer for himself and Simon to come to terms with it at all. He had finally relented on River's 19th birthday, when the little witch sat down on Jayne's lap at the dinner table that night and refused to move. Simon and himself had been the only two to react and looking back on it now, he realized just how badly he had gone off half-cocked. Both of them had threatened and yelled at her to move, Simon had even tried to gilt her into doing what he wanted; but her stubborn reply had been a quite no, followed by grabbing Jayne's hands and wrapping them around her waist. The man himself was unable to move for fear of Mal drawing his gun the rest of the way out of its holster. Mal didn't back off until River was forced to draw Emily and point black tell him that although he was in her eyes her father, that she was old enough to make her own choice on the matter, and just because he could not pull the trigger on his own gorram relationship gave him no right to try and end hers. To the chorus of snickers from most of the crew and an arched eyebrow from Inara, Mal was cowed into his seat; leaving Simon standing gapping like a fish when he realized that he no longer had any back up.

Mal could feel something coming; the instincts that had kept himself and Zoe safe during the War were on edge right now. The feeling was like a shadow hanging over his head, slowly spreading throughout the ship. The premonition started a little over a month previous, right after they did a job for Spike Evens, oh and who in their gorram mind names their kid Spike? Besides the point, the man had been far too interested in who River was to the crew, something that did not sit well with any of them, most of all himself and Jayne.

As a rule, River's and Jayne's relationship was not known to anyone outside of the crew. The only indication to the outside world that they were anything more than crew mates was the small band of gold on River's hand and a tattoo of Vera crossed with River's ax encompassing Jayne's entire back.

With how Spike had been leering at their Reader, Jayne had been more protective over her than usual, leaving Mal worried that they had tipped their hand. He had point blank asked Mal if "that fine piece of trim" was for sale or not. Mal had seen the smirk on the man's face had not reached his eyes, leaving behind an evil look that rubbed the captain the wrong way and caused unease to settle in his gut. Since that day it felt like something was watching them whenever they would make it planet side. Even happy go lucky Wash would get jittery being grounded for too long. Tails started following then when they would do jobs on planets closer to the Core.

Mal didn't like not even knowing the threat, to have a faceless enemy was starting to wear them all thin; however both River and him had an idea, or at least he had an idea, he knew River without a doubt was aware of just who was behind it all, and he would bet his cut of pay credits that she told Jayne the name as well. As a result they took fewer jobs, steadily moving out towards the far Rim planets, and all through it was shiny to have larger payin' jobs, it also meant more opportunities for him to end up in the infirmary. Mal was starting to come to the end of his rope; He had enough problems keeping their home flyin' and his family whole.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he refocused on the couple reclining on the bed in front of him, watching as Jayne drifted off and joined River in slumber. Shrugging his shoulders, Mal turned away and headed up to the bridge.

_Time for some captainy duties. _


End file.
